Show Grimm Bros conned their way to No 2 at the box office Aaron Zundel The Globe This movie focuses on the famous Brothers Grimm yes the same Brothers Grimm who wrote all the fairy tales as they traipse about Bavaria defeating the supernatural and chronicling their experiences In truth they are a couple of con artists preying on the superstitions of poor villagers that is until they run into a real witch with real powers and a real haunted forest The movie has bits of famous fairy tales generously sprinkled throughout and it was kind of a pleasure to see where all the ideas for those stories supposedly came from in a Forest Gump yi sort of way The movie is the latest foray into cinema by Monty Python alumni Terry Gilliam and he may have backed himself into a corner on this one You see Gilliam films films Brazil Brazil 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas among others others have have historically been geared to a very specific niche audience audience audience audi audi- ence but this time around Gilliam has taken takena a more mainstream approach That's not necessarily a bad thing its it's just that Gilliam didn't steer it into the mainstream enough As it sits The Brothers Grimm seems trapped in this funky limbo between trying to please the eccentric artsy Gilliam fan base while still trying to please everyone else The result is just the opposite Fans are going to decry it and regular audiences wont won't be able to get behind it That's not to say I didn't like the movie I did But I think Im I'm in the minority on this one Stylistically it reminded me of a darker edgier more serious movie But without I know that must seem like a strange thing to say but then again Gilliam movies are strange to begin with The lighting the sets and the characters Peter as in particular all felt a lit- lit well tle-well- The acting is a little littleover littleover littleover over the top in I classic U Gilliam i 1 1 i a m style but E- E 4 f 4 t. t fI L r t l 0 Matt Damon and Heath Ledger took the fathers of fairytales to a new level In The Brothers Brother's Grimm Monica Belluci and Peter also star still fun to watch Heath Ledger as Jacob the quieter brainier of the two brothers gives his best and deepest deep deep- est performance in recent memory though that's still not saying much And Matt Damon makes a standard if still well executed executed executed exe exe- exe- exe showing as the flashy Wilhelm If you want to see this movie for the Ledger Damon hotness factor though youre you're eating the wrong c candy Ledger sports a ratty face obscuring beard and they both wear baggy grimy eighteenth century attire the whole movie Sorry ladies no secret agent six packs in this one All in all I recommend the movie I would just suggest that you get in the right frame of mind before you go This is neither a so called movie nor is it a popcorn thriller and people expecting either will be disappointed It is simply a fairy tale I wrapped inside a fairy tale I If you enter the theater with the same awe and wonder you had when you listened to stories as a child but temper it with the sensibilities sensibilities sensibilities sen sen- of an adult you might just enjoy yourself i |